Comeuppance
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So, I happened across this PubMed article that compiles in vitro, animal, and human studies on a few natural anabolic compounds.
Link to whole study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4804074/#B58
Link to the table within the study that contains anything you're actually interested in: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4804074/table/tab7/
So, if we ignore the animal and in vitro studies, some interesting compounds are shown to have positive effects, a few of which I've picked:
- Proanthocyanidin of grape seeds (@ 100 or 200 mg/d proanthocyanidin) : Changes in lean mass and muscle mass from baseline to 8 weeks significantly higher in treated groups. (Study used 91 women)
- Epicatechin (from green tea leaves, @25 mg of pure Epi (~1 mg/kg/day) using 6 subjects): Increase in bilateral hand strength of ~7%. Significant increase (49.2 ± 16.6%) in the ratio of plasma follistatin/myostatin levels.
- Alkaloids and steroidal lactones from Withania somnifera (ashwagandha @500 mg of the whole root extract twice daily; 750 mg twice daily): Improvement of the strength and functioning of the muscle.
(The only one I left out of these samples was the mixed catechin from green tea leaves, which only measured speed improvements in the tested subjects.)
Thoughts:
(-)-epicatechin in a very very very small sample size showed some myostatin inhibition, which is much in line with the spiels we have been fed - but that is such a small sample that the results are extremely questionable.
Proanthocyanidin is a surprise to me - I've always used grape seed extract (standardized for polyphenols) as a volumizing agent / vasodilator, but it's interesting to see that a specific kind of polyphenol has shown anabolic activity - though it is worth noting the study only used women.
Ashwagandha is another surprise, as my understanding was that it was generally just a cortisol / stress modulator. Interesting to see that it may have an effect on muscle strength, but I wonder if that is just a peripheral effect from the reduced stress levels.
Anyway, just thought I'd share this article with you guys. I've gone ahead and ordered some Proanthocyanidin 95% caps for the heck of it to see if that confers any benefit.
Link to whole study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4804074/#B58
Link to the table within the study that contains anything you're actually interested in: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4804074/table/tab7/
So, if we ignore the animal and in vitro studies, some interesting compounds are shown to have positive effects, a few of which I've picked:
- Proanthocyanidin of grape seeds (@ 100 or 200 mg/d proanthocyanidin) : Changes in lean mass and muscle mass from baseline to 8 weeks significantly higher in treated groups. (Study used 91 women)
- Epicatechin (from green tea leaves, @25 mg of pure Epi (~1 mg/kg/day) using 6 subjects): Increase in bilateral hand strength of ~7%. Significant increase (49.2 ± 16.6%) in the ratio of plasma follistatin/myostatin levels.
- Alkaloids and steroidal lactones from Withania somnifera (ashwagandha @500 mg of the whole root extract twice daily; 750 mg twice daily): Improvement of the strength and functioning of the muscle.
(The only one I left out of these samples was the mixed catechin from green tea leaves, which only measured speed improvements in the tested subjects.)
Thoughts:
(-)-epicatechin in a very very very small sample size showed some myostatin inhibition, which is much in line with the spiels we have been fed - but that is such a small sample that the results are extremely questionable.
Proanthocyanidin is a surprise to me - I've always used grape seed extract (standardized for polyphenols) as a volumizing agent / vasodilator, but it's interesting to see that a specific kind of polyphenol has shown anabolic activity - though it is worth noting the study only used women.
Ashwagandha is another surprise, as my understanding was that it was generally just a cortisol / stress modulator. Interesting to see that it may have an effect on muscle strength, but I wonder if that is just a peripheral effect from the reduced stress levels.
Anyway, just thought I'd share this article with you guys. I've gone ahead and ordered some Proanthocyanidin 95% caps for the heck of it to see if that confers any benefit.